Pierce’s Disease of Grapevines in Mexico. B. C. Raju, Postgraduate Research Plant Pathologist, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis 95616. A. C. Goheen, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA, SEA/AR, and Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis 95616; D. Teliz, Plant Pathologist, CIAN, Torreon, Coah., Mexico; and G. Nyland, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis. Plant Dis. 64:280-282. Accepted for publication 15 October 1979. Copyright 1980 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-64-280.

A bacterium with rippled cell walls was isolated and cultured from the petioles of grape leaves with symptoms of Pierce’s disease. The leaves were collected from Parras, Mexico. The organism was reinoculated by vacuum infiltration and needle injection into dormant and rooted green cuttings of grape cultivars. Characteristic symptoms of Pierce’s disease developed within 2–3 mo; controls remained healthy. The bacterium was reisolated from the experimentally infected vines. A sonicated cell suspension of the Mexican isolate was used to produce antiserum in New Zealand white rabbits. Serologically, the Mexican isolate was the same as the Pierce’s disease organism isolated from grape, almond, and alfalfa from California, Florida, and Costa Rica. However, the isolates from grapes in Mexico and Florida formed an extra band in agar gel double-diffusion tests, with homologous antisera.